Lucha Underground star Joey Ryan joins Sean Waltman on X-Pac 12360 this week, revealing that he signed for seven seasons with the show, and declaring that his YouPorn sponsorship has been more lucrative than his work in WWE. Stream it in the video player below, or download the podcast version at this link.
How Joey’s lollipop gimmick was created:
The only restriction I was given [at WSX] was I wanted to smoke a cigarette to the ring. But they told me that I couldn’t have a lit cigarette around the pyro. So that’s why I came out with a cigarette that wasn’t lit. Later on through evolution I changed the oral fixation from being a cigarette to being a lollipop, because a lot of buildings won’t let you smoke in them, or if you get in a situation where there’s pyro around you definitely can’t have a lit cigarette. So the lollipop came out of the cigarette which was just me feeling like my character needed some sort of oral fixation.
Joey on if he was concerned a YouPorn sponsorship would limit his future opportunities:
One initial check that YouPorn gave me paid me more than all of the dark matches and SmackDown job matches I did in WWE combined. So I’m going to go with the money. There’s part of every wrestler that wants to be presented in a light that looks favorable to WWE, because obviously they’re the top of the industry. But at this point I was like, I’m just going to do what makes sense for me.
His response to Jim Cornette’s criticism:
You have to put that in perspective. Jim Cornette says a lot of things to try to get attention on himself. Guys like that do. I don’t think I’m for everybody. Not everybody’s going to be a fan of mine, and I’m OK with that.
Joey reveals his Lucha Underground contract spans seven seasons:
The initial deal I did was the long term deal, which I’m happy with…Seven seasons, I think that’s the standard deal. I hope it’s OK that I say that. That’s not really private information. I think that’s well known now. A couple of the guys got different deals. The more established guys maybe got a little different deal. But the standard deal is for seven seasons. It’s a TV contract, because Lucha Underground is not a wrestling promotion, it’s a TV show.
Joey explains “WCW Tuesdays” with Cody Rhodes:
So Cody moved to L.A. Brandi’s trying to get into some acting. Cody’s doing a little bit of acting himself. He lives ten minutes from me, so we hang out sometimes. We have another friend Zacko that we get together with on Tuesdays. Zacko never watched WCW in his life. So we get together and have what we call WCW Tuesdays, where we make him watch a WCW pay-per-view.
Joey also talks about his WWE tryout, time in Impact Wrestling, and more. Get it all on this week’s brand new episode of AfterBuzz TV’s X-Pac 12360.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
